article · PLoS ONE
A cross-sectional survey evaluated knowledge, attitudes, and practices concerning COVID-19 among undergraduate students at Debre Berhan University in Ethiopia. Out of 546 participants, nearly three-quarters relied on social media as their primary information source. Overall, approximately 74 percent of students demonstrated good knowledge of the disease, and over 71 percent accurately identified core symptoms such as fever, fatigue, dry cough, and shortness of breath. Attitudes were largely favourable, though 42 percent expressed no personal concern about contracting the virus. Despite reasonable knowledge levels, preventive practices were poor, with over half failing to maintain physical distancing. Being over 25 years old and residing in urban settings correlated with higher knowledge, whilst prior exposure to information positively influenced attitudes. Targeted awareness campaigns are recommended to address these behavioural gaps.
High levels of factual knowledge do not automatically translate into effective protective behaviours during a public health crisis. By demonstrating that optimistic student attitudes and widespread social media consumption coincided with poor adherence to physical distancing, these findings highlight the need for tailored university interventions that actively bridge the gap between disease awareness and real-world compliance.
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BACKGROUND: Novel coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious disease that has caused a global pandemic. As of July 2020, there were 8,475 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ethiopia, and a total of 52 cases and 1 death were reported in Debre Berhan where this study was conducted. Under these conditions, we sought to assess what undergraduate students at Debre Berhan University knew about COVID-19 and how it shaped their attitudes and practices regarding this disease. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the current study was to assess undergraduate student knowledge, attitudes and practices towards COVID-19 in Debre Berhan University, Ethiopia. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from March 18-24, 2020 among undergraduate students at Debre Berhan University. A two-stage cluster sampling technique was employed with a total sample size of 634. Proportional allocation of samples was used to the randomly selected colleges, and a systematic random sampling technique was employed to recruit the students. The data were checked for completeness, coded, entered into Epi-Data VS 3.1, and then exported into STATA™ Version 14 software for analysis. Descriptive statistics were conducted. Binary logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors. Factors were selected with the entry method. Adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess the associations between variables and knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP). RESULTS: From a total of 546 included participants, more than half of them, 307 (57%) were males. Seventy-three percent of them heard about novel coronavirus from social media. In this study, 73.8% of the participants were knowledgeable, and their overall attitude was favorable. Approximately 71.4% correctly responded that the main clinical symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, fatigue, dry cough, and shortness of breath. Nearly half, 229 (42%) of the students approved that they had no concern of being infected with COVID-19. Moreover, most participants showed poor practices; more than half of the study subjects were not maintaining a physical distance. In multivariable analyses, people older than 25 years (AOR = 1.6, 95% CI; 1.2, 4.6) and those who lived in urban areas (AOR = 4.3, 95% CI; 2.6, 15.8) were significantly more knowledgeable about COVID-19. Furthermore, those students that have information about COVID-19 (AOR = 2.3, 95% CI; 1.6, 8.7) was significantly associated with the attitude undergraduate students had about COVID-19 as compared with its counterpart. CONCLUSION: The undergraduate students at Debre Berhan University were moderately knowledgeable about COVID-19 and had an optimistic attitude towards its resolution. However, this optimism may lead to poor public health practices within this community. Therefore, greater efforts need to be made through more comprehensive and directed actions and awareness campaigns to increase the knowledge, attitude and practice of the students.
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DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250444
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